Another guest blog; this one by my niece who says exactly what I want to convey about how to enjoy exercise:

Making a lifestyle change: the difference between “have to” and “get to” when exercising

The most important thing I’ve done for myself in recent months is
get a healthy amount of exercise on a regular basis. And I’ll let you
in on a secret: it wasn’t hard. At all. In fact, it’s my favorite part
of my routine, which makes all the difference in the world.
Fitness, diet, and overall health is something I’ve struggled with
for as long as I can remember. I’ve never had an issue with exercise,
but the hardest part was always getting up and actually doing it. To
make things trickier, I don’t have a sweet tooth. I have sweet teeth; 32
of them to be exact, and they’re absolutely relentless. Combining the
two, getting healthy was always a mighty chore that I just didn’t have
time for. Procrastination for me consisted of a date with cookies,
Netflix, and a lot of blankets. And so when I finally got to the backed
up work that had to be done, I’d tell myself I had no time to hit the
gym.
A little over two months ago, I stumbled upon some classes my school
fitness center was offering. A brand new facility opened in November
with state-of-the-art everything, but the newness faded pretty quickly
and what was cool for a month turned back into a huge room full of
treadmills that didn’t interest me. When I forced myself to go after
class one day, I found a flier for classes that I had never seen before;
Contemporary Dance, Beyoncé Booty Barre (as cool as it sounds), all
sorts of styles of yoga, etc. I ventured out to the next class and the
rest is history.
The classes I began to take completely revolutionized the way I
started to think about fitness. I’d come home energized and excited and
– somehow – counting down the days until my next class. Each
one brought to the table something that really made me happy – even
better than Netflix and food and laziness. Of course, extracurricular
activity and schoolwork do take up a decent chunk of my week and
sometimes a little TV time is absolutely essential to my well-being.
The biggest change happened when I realized that all of this counted as exercise. I’d grown so exhausted and fatigued
by that word that I was at a point where I couldn’t ever imagine it was
something I could love. It hit me that exercise shouldn’t be a chore,
it should be a part of your routine that you look forward to. Not “I have to exercise today” but “I get
to exercise today”. There’s a reason why most children don’t need to
worry about “getting exercise”; it’s because running around and playing
outside is their exercise. No need to look at it as a chore if
you’re having fun. There are countless ways to incorporate exercise
into your schedule without thinking of it as a task. To name a few:
- Dance classes. The Beyoncé Booty Class is my new
favorite; We spend a portion of the class on a barre warm-up, a portion
learning a routine, and a portion sculpting workouts exclusively
focusing on our lower halves – entirely to Beyoncé songs. It’s
empowering and a major confidence booster. Check local studios and gyms
for unique dance-oriented classes.
- Rock Climbing. Indoor or outdoor, whatever floats your boat – just make sure you’re doing it safely!
- Hiking.

- Trampolining. This was one of my all time
favorite activities as a kid and it’s still secretly one of my favorite
things to do. Plus, now they have actual indoor “trampoline parks”,
where you can bounce around for your allotted amount of time which is
quite the workout, if you can imagine.
- Indoor Surfing. Heard about this from a friend,
still haven’t tried it yet. Essentially you’re put in a room on an
electronic surfboard with screens of waves surrounding the room. As the
surfboard moves, you maintain different postures and positions to
improve muscle definition and balance. Sounds great for those who just
can’t get to a beach any time soon.

- Yoga. One that recently caught my attention is
called Anti-Gravity yoga, where you activate your core and engage in
different stretches while suspended from a hammock-like cloth on the
ceiling.

- Walking the beach. So maybe this isn’t
necessarily available to everyone, but if you’re fortunate enough to
live near a body of water, it can be a major way to energize for the
day; I like to do it if I’m up early enough. Nothing like the sound of
the waves to start your day.

At the end of the day, you can do all of these or none of these.
Some people might love the machines at the gym and that’s awesome.
Essentially, I’ve found that the most important thing is just to love
what you do; the sooner you stop thinking chore and start thinking fun, the sooner you’ll find a healthier and happier lifestyle.

Here’s a picture of me trampolining. It was tons of fun, I recommend it!